The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
It is often desirable in various types of environments to have sanitary items such as disposable hand towels and hand soap available for activities such as cleaning one's hands. Such environments may include outdoor public settings such as parks, festivals, golf courses and sporting events, as well as indoor public settings such as grocery stores, trade shows and malls. In many of these locations, people may have the need to clean their hands after food has been served, or where their hands may become dirty for any reason. Oftentimes, conventional restroom facilities that would ordinarily provide ready accessibility to hand towels and/or hand soap are either not present or are inconvenient to visit.
In addition, the need for sanitary items often occurs on a temporary basis, such as when festivals are set up at particular locations for limited periods of time, or when grocery stores or other businesses set up temporary locations for providing food samples to customers. Accordingly, in these settings, it is often desirable to provide selected sanitary items, such as disposable hand towels, on a similar temporary basis for allowing the cleaning of hands. There is thus a need for portable sanitary item dispensers of the type that can be easily and conveniently moved into a desired location, and subsequently removed when no longer needed. Such dispensers should preferably be of a size and weight suitable for being hand-portable, capable of holding a sufficient number of hand towels, a sufficient amount of hand soap or a sufficient amount of any other desired sanitary item, for frequent use by many individuals. They should also preferably be conveniently transported, refilled and stored.
Certain types of sanitary items are commercially available in pre-manufactured and/or refillable dispensing devices, or containers, for ready retrieval. It is economical, and therefore desirable, to provide dispensers of the type that can readily accommodate these types of dispensing devices in some way. Examples of such dispensing devices include pre-manufactured hand towel canisters and refillable hand soap containers, which would be attached to or contained within the portable sanitary item dispensers.
Because such portable sanitary dispensers are likely be used by many individuals, it is convenient, and therefore desirable, to make the dispensers accessible from all sides and at a height convenient for sanitary activities, such as hand-washing. In addition, because such dispensers would be moved frequently, they would preferably be constructed of a strong, lightweight durable material and assembled in a durable configuration. Such dispensers would also preferably be constructed of weather-resistant materials and in a configuration suitable for maintaining a stationary position in windy outdoor conditions.
Because such dispensers could potentially be subject to vandalism, it would be desirable for them to be constructed in a modular design, so that damaged portions could be easily replaced. Also, in order to protect the contents of such dispensers from theft, it would be desirable for the contents to be secured in a locked condition within the dispensers. It would also be advantageous for the dispensed items to be at least partially protected from the weather by the configuration of the dispenser assembly, such as to prevent dry hand towels from becoming wet due to rain. It would be further advantageous for such dispensers to be constructed from materials and in configurations that allow for convenient cleaning and maintenance when needed.